Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Cables and mea culpas from Down Under

So, I guess we couldn't have been much more wrong about Cliff Lee's mindset, huh?

Rather than showing Roy Halladay and his bride who's who and what's what, we're presuming that Lee will soon make his way to Doc and Brandy's to fry up a mess o' fish that his new rotation pal has just caught.

Which just goes to show you that the rest of the world isn't nearly as petty and mean spirited as yours truly. And bully for that.

Other stuff from the other side of the world - Oprah! We're here in Sydney as Oprah has brought her roadshow to town. And while we haven't managed to meet up with "O" yet, we did bump into her gal pal Gayle King in the markets at The Rocks, not far from the Opera House. And had we been more brave, we would have struck up a conversation with her and the burly man walking with her. Instead, we just snapped photos of her for future conversation starters.

(Incidentally, Gayle literally bumped into me, and I've gotta say that she's a bit of a bruiser. Like, we've gotta hope that after all the BeestMode workouts that the Jays are engaged in this offseason, they come back with big burly arms like hers.)

Searching for baseball news in AustraliaThere's precious little information to be found about our beloved game down here, so the Jays could trade Travis Snider to the Yankees for a pine tar rag, and we wouldn't hear about it until we get back. Which drives us a little crazy.

Also, we have yet to see Graeme Lloyd or Luke Prokopec down here. If we do, we plan on buying Lloyd a tasty beverage, and punching Prokopec in his Aussie balls. (Ok, probably not. But that's okay, because the chances of actually seeing them are pretty remote.)

A consoling word for you all before we slip back off the gridAs we were leaving the country, the news of Carl Crawford's signing hit and we heard Jays fans start to throw up their hands in frustration. Certainly, that signing combined with the Adrian Gonzalez deal and whatever is sure to come from the Yankees is enough to make you fret over the seeming impossibility of ever getting over and succeeding with such insurmountable behemoths there to tamp out every little ember that begins to glow from our side.

If we could offer one word of solace, it's this: We think that Alex and the new administration are demonstrating a commendable patience in the face of these developments, and that this team is being built with a process that will allow them to consistently have a full pipeline and a strong Major League team. And while it's never going to be as easy as winning any of the other divisions, it will be infinitely sweeter when the time comes and this team makes it to the next level.

(Is it just us, or did we just write the marketing line for a pro-abstinence group right there? Yikes.)

One thing that we'll have to recognize, though, as the Jays proceed through 2011 and beyond in trying to compete with the Yanks and Sox (and possibly still the Rays) is that we have to recalibrate our sense of what constitutes a meaningful game. We've been locked into this old notion of "games whilst in contention against other contenders in September" as what we consider full of meaning. But given the dogfight that we're going to see in the next few seasons, we think that meaningful games in the AL East are going to start much earlier in the season, and we have a fair bit of confidence that the Jays will be playing those games this June, July and August against those opponents.

12 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Although baseball knowledge can be hard enough to mine in Oz, when you get it, its usually bloody good. Check out the ABL when you're there, lots of washed up prospects for you to sink your teeth into. They broadcast all the games on the radio, and its hilarious to hear things like 'line drive' in the accent.

Baltimore signed Accardo and are mulling over Gregg? What in the name of Roy Lee Jackson are they doing? I'm so glad not to be a fan of theirs as I can still remember hearing about the great Oriole Way.

@ scrappy, Gregg had a ton of saves last year. Heck he was shaky BUT he got it done. Good move for the Os. accardo? H'll do OK in terms of a change of scenery type of thing. Meanwhile, anthopoulos trades away his kinda/sorta number 1 after offering him an extension for a not ready MLB player. Other than that Alex has been sitting on his thumbs. The team needs bullpen help,some bench depth like a Diaz who has signed already,someone with a better OBP than what they have and a third baseman. Unfortunately, I feel that this season will be the shitty season that everyone feared last year. The Os are better with Showalter,so I can envisage The Jays battling for forth again . as much as The Rays have diminished losing Crawford, Pena and bullpen pieces, they still have that staring pitching. so far AA is watching other people make moves and you just can't operate a club with the fans talking about how when all these prospects will show up and be stars on the team. You have no idea if Lawrie or any of these kids will be stars yet. It was incumbent on Alex to at least fill holes, instead he's watching other people do that.